lists ect.

The Golden Tulip by Rosalind Laker

At Random House, they’ve got free shelves of books and it’s just so easy to go looking for something new to read.  And I can’t help but indulge in unfamiliar authors.  I just keeping hoping that I’ll find something wonderful that I’ve never heard of.  But I think I should  start doing more research when I’m picking up an unknown author.  Like going to the movies and not having seen any of the previews you’d guess based on the title and the rating….chances are that you’d end up seeing something you didn’t really want.  So here I am….stuck posting about a lame historical romance.

The book is set in Holland just before the war with France.  The plot is centered around a family, the father is a well known painter in Amsterdam with a drinking + gambling problem.  Of his three daughters the eldest two are also aspiring painters, and the third  a musician.  Gambling debts, marriage contracts, tulip sales, painting apprenticeships, and French spies are all a part of a plot that the Hallmark Channel should consider turning into a mini-series. (Nothing against those mini-series, I’ve watched my share. I’m not above a little dramatic romance or cheesy plot.)  The book made for pretty good subway reading, and sense I don’t have TV it’s nice reading to wind-down after work.   That said, I’ve got some issues with Rosalind’s book:

1. Dialogue is weak, stale, and flat.  I don’t care what time period you’re writing in, your character’s should be alive in their words.
2.The plot doesn’t pick up till 2/3 of the way through, when it should pick up 1/3 of the way in. (Once it gets going it’s got a good pace)
3. The author’s wrought narrative voice is over wrought.  The vocabulary and sentence structure seems like a stretch for the writer.  Like Rosalind Laker has to put on her 17th century bodice and slippers and whip out her quill to tell us this story.

I took a chance on a historical piece by Rosalind Laker. I knew I wasn’t in for something spectacular, but I’ll admit I was hoping for another Diana Gabeldon. I wanted something a little sexier, a little less stale.  Maybe if I’d seen a preview, I would have known what I was getting into. Oh well, can’t win ‘em all.

That’s right folks. The long awaited issue three is in stores, so go stock up.

If you’re in NYC check out Forbidden Planet in Union Square. If you don’t have a local place, you can go directly to the Adhouse website. www.adhousebooks.com.

YAHOO!

Empire Falls

By Richard Russo

First I’ll confess that I’m a bit in love with this book, I’m not head over heels, but I’m certainly nursing a crush.  Richard Russo has crafted his characters to perfection, each one with a unique voice, and compelling desires, each one relatable and moving. A good character can only flourish in a well-told story, and Russo has gone and written a mighty fine story. And finally Russo’s voice is relatable, honest, and true.  So it’s safe to say I’ve got a new contender for a top 20 book.

I picked up Russo, almost as a fluke.  His name was just stuck in my head while I was browsing though the shelves of a used book shop.  With money in my pocket and I slim reading list….well, here we are.

I feel luck to have gotten such a treasure accidentally. It’s so rare to accidentally come upon a writer who’s words ring so true with almost every paragraph.  Almost.  The book….well…it goes on a little to long.  It strays from the main story a little too often for my taste.  I’m willing to follow a writer just about anywhere, especially a writer who’s won my trust.  But after so many set backs, side trails, asides….I just wanted to get through to the end

Russo has described the first half of the book with perfect clarity a pastoral blue-collar, rural America that is incredibly real.  It’s a world that anyone who’s grown up in a small town will recognize. The places are familiar, the characters are people I recognized from Swannanoa…although Russo’s characters are distantly Catholic, and the people I know are strictly of the Baptist faith.  Other than a religious preference….they’ve got the same kind of issues going on.

Then about a third of the way through, the novel starts to take a darker turn.  At first it’s a bit of a thrill to read as Russo slowly reveals the darker secrets that these characters keep But this is where the novel goes on to long, the middle gets bogged down.  Russo wants us  to see the dark belly of the story, but he’s holding back for to long.  And after a dragging for 100+ pages, I’m ready to finish.  Then once Russo gets along with the business of finishing he’s story….it’s awesome.  The plot picks up speed, the characters finally act on their impulses.  And I’m back on the page right there with the story, no longer worried about when the story is going to end.

It’s good, and overall the book is an elegant example of good fiction.  It’s worth getting to…but the middle just needed a little tightening.

Sorry for the delay….no internet. had to find time to get to the cafe.

But after a LONG delay I’m back in the swing of things.

A Place On Earth
By Wendell Berry

If I could be any author, I mean really, BE any author, I’d wanna be Wendell Berry. I want to write like him, notice detail the way he does, understand a story the way he does., and live and farm in the Kentucky hills with a wife and seven grandkids. I’m not much of a farm girl. But I’d get up at 5am to milk cows if it meant that I could write the human condition the way Wendell Berry does.

This book is part of a group of books in a series about “The Port William Membership.” The books doe not follow a certain sequence, but circles around the same subject: the town of Port William, Kentucky. Wendell Berry has built the story around a few of the town’s principle players, the story. Each one connected to the other in the way that all small towns are connected. These are neighbors, family, and familiar acquaintances who all share a history of place and memories of loved ones who’ve passed.

The story takes place during a time of war (I’m guessing WWII, but it could be earlier, but the book isn’t specific about dates). The town has sent most of its young men off to fight leaving old men, wives, mothers, and kids. Small vignettes take the place of a strong action driven plot. Each characters struggle with grief, love, hope, and a late start on the spring planting, is enough to carry you through the entire 300+ pages.

Each character’s grief or apprehension takes on individual textures and forms. And Wendell’s insight into each character is full rendered here. One of my favorite moments of the book (there are too many to even put here) comes after the town learns that the war is over. Three of the main characters, Jayber, Big Ellis, and Burley proceed to get totally drunk and once the entire town has gone to sleep they decide to burry the town drunk who’s passed out on the street still breathing but effectively dead. The mock funeral turns from farce to poignancy without leaving the ground of reality

Overtaken and sobered by Jayber’s words – Jayber as much as the others – they stand with their heads bowed after he has finished. Apart from anything any of them could have intended or expected, Jayber’s words have transcended drunkenness and farce. The meaning of the time has been lifted far above the snores that come with astonishing power out of the grave. Jayber’s words have returned them to the occasion they started with – the end of the war, the dying, the deaths – the graves of the millions that, beyond knowing, peace has come to.

Read it.

Wanna know more about Wendell Berry:
Website all about him HERE

Where to find his books: amazon.com

Good Lord….time really does fly…when you’re having fun.  Or when you’re reading mediocre fiction.  Jeeze. Leme tell ya, I’ve just been through a stretch of stinkers recently.  It’s not that they were bad, believe me outrageously bad is better than middle of the road mediocrity, it’s that these books didn’t leave any kind of impression on me at all.    I’m sure that all editors and critics must get these streaks where everything that comes through their door is unremarkable for one reason or another. So here’s the list of “eh, I guess there were ok,” in no particular order:

Widdershins by Charles de Lint (that’ll teach me to revisit an author I liked when I was 13)

The Mistressclass by Michele Roberts (hooked by the title, I should have quit when the heavy references to Charlotte Bronte didn’t let up)

Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani (Love me some cheesy southern fiction so this one’s my favorite. Plus it’s recommended by Whoopi Goldberg, not someone you see quoted on the backs of books much)

Must Love Dogs by Claire Cook (This one I knew wouldn’t be good.  It’s mostly because I didn’t have any Netflix to watch and Fred was in San Francisco.  I had to find something to fill up the hours.)

Thankfully that stretch is over.  I’ve just finished A Place On Earth by Wendell Berry, a fantastic writer.  Everything I’ve picked by him is always insightful, well crafted, and wonderful to read.  He knows how to tell a story, and more importantly he knows the story he’s telling.  Expect a full report for this weekend.

In the meantime I’m going to try and get this thing up and running again.  Sorry for the extended holiday….but I’m out of the doldrums and living in the literary sunshine again.